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Supplement to the Daily Bulletin-
iday, August M, 1839.
a m n
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THE CHINESE QUESTION.
ISniToit Hi:u.rriN : Tho efforts of
planters several times repented, to
got the Ministry to let in more Chi
nese, and on the other hand the
growing nnlngonism of other whites
and natives to the admission of
more lahnr of any kind unless eon
fined and restricted to plantation
work point significantly to the com
ing collision on thnt question this
election.
Those interested in cheap lalior
have been represented or rather mis
represented by their leadero in such
a way that they will be pushed into
the coming election with a record
furnished by their mentors so unne
cessarily disingenuous, one-sided
and inconsistent as to provoke un
precedented hostility and resentment
on the part of their fellow whites,
and will heavily handicap themselves
in obtaining even their just demands
next legislature.
For example: the pro-Chinese
loaders have within the last two
years adopted as a political princi
ple the view that the necessities of
their fellow whites will not justify
restrictive measures against Chinese
if involving departure fioin the ap
proved piecedents furnished by free
institutions, forgetting that they
themselves have resorted these many
years to this identical plea of "ne
cessity" to secure, at hazardous risk
to the free institutions of the coun
try, the coolie labor they now have,
and have no other plea to urge in
asking more of it next legislature.
Surely all history pioves that
there can be no greater menace to
tree institutions nor a more radical
departure from safe precedent than
in attempting to incorporate into a
free country with already many ele
ments of weakness dioves of igno
rant aliens of a hostile civilization
and religion, with an enormous pre
ponderance of males among them,
and in such numbers as already to
constitute one-third of the entire
population.
The fact is both the planter's de
mand for more cheap labor and his
fellow white's demand fen some
check upon that labor now here rest
upon the identical plea of necessity.
The arguments which justify one act
justify both, and it cannot in lca
son be expected that the position
taken by the pro-Chinese leaders,
disallowing all legislation based on
that plea when intioduced in behalf
of others, will not in turn by them
be forced upon the pro Chinese
pany regardless of consequences
next legislature when more labor is
asked for.
The exasperating clfeet this posi
' lion of the pro-t'hiiiee paitv will
have on the electors at large next
February when tully presented to
them can only be fairly appreciated
when one considers that the undue
pressure upon wliites and nauves
they now complain of was not of
their own seeking, but has come
upon them while co-operating in the
introduction of coolies for their own
fellow citizens inleiesied in cheap
labor. Tt would reasonably be sup
posed under such circumstances
that those for whom this labor was
allowed to come for whom this
lisk was run would in turn con
sider themselves in honor bound to
lend' their hearty co-operation in
preventing loss or menace to their
white kand native brethren by rea
son nt the coolie's pietsonce. It cer
tainly would never have been be
lieved, had not our own eyes wit
nessed it last legislature, that it was
to be this very class which, standing
.in the fiont ranks of the legilatuie,
would resist and kill every attempt
to cheek the rising tide of coolie
(competition in the towns which now
clouds anil obscures the future of
both whites and natives.
Again thoe interested in cheap
labor go into this election without
any right in truth to claim that the
position of the anti-Chinese party
was or is hostile to the planters' in
terests. The records of the legis
lature show in black and while that
so lar from there being any impo
sition to prevent the introduction of
cheap labor for plantations there
was an express provision in the Con
stitutional amendment presented by
the anti-Chinese member them
selves by which Chinese could not
be pi evented from coming for the
rice nnd sugar plantations, provid
ed they were restricted in their em
ployment to those industries and
could be sent back when their ser
vices wero no longer needed. It
was then claimed by anti-Chinese
members that the present process of
introdticinc unrestricted cheap la
bor was no special advantngc to the
planter" and unnecessarily onerous
upon the country, in that out of
ever' two or three men introduced
for the plantations one perhaps re
mained permanently at plantation
work and the balance, after tempo
rary service there where they were
needed, left to go out into the coun
try at large where more coolies now
means simply a deadly incubus on
the white and native races and an
oppressive struggle for that limited
number of better paid occupations
upon which our own people must
depend for a living if they are to
stay here. The anti-Chinese patty
then said, "An unrestricted .lap is
far better than an unrestricted Chi
naman, but a lestricted Chinaman
is far better than an unrestricted
Jap," and the entire issue on the
labor question as far as the planta
tions are concerned thus far has
been, not whether cheap lalior shall
come, but how it shall come and
under what restrictions. On this
issue. Inst legislature, the represent
atives of those interested in cheap
labor saw fit to take their stand
against any restriction whatever be
ing put on the coolie after lie got
heie.
Such a position so unuecessnrj
for the protection of the planters'
interests, so senselessly servile to a
coolie's wishes, so merciless and
high-handed toward' their fellow
whites men who with women and
children by their sides to support
and care for have within the past
two years twice demonstrated their
willingness to face death in support
of lesponsible government such a
position I say will rouse any man's
resentment and will foice tho whites
and natives in self defense to take
the stand this election that, seeing
those interested in cheap labor not
content with getting their labor in
sist upon giving it full license after
getting here to forage on the b.ilauce
of the country, they in turn will
bend eveiy eneigy to keep it out
alloge'her until provision can be
made by which it can be brought in
undei pioper restrictions.
It is unfortunate that such an is
sue should be raised "and more so
thar the leaders of those interested
in cheap labor should themselves
have provoked it. It is unfortun-
ate that the views of Col. Spalding
and many other planters, which are
practically in sympathy with those
of their fellow whites in the towns,
have apparently been ovei ridden by
another wing of the cheap labor
patty, for the most pail centeied in
Honolulu, which having not only
plantation stock but also discounts,
commissions, rents and what not to
make out of Chinatown, evidently
consider that they can best further
these dual inteiests by suppressing
1 this auitation. all along the line and
I being so placed that a few of them
I in Honolulu can command the polili
' cal policy of the entire siiL'ar inter
ests, have concluded to whip it into
; their service, though the issue as
1 rawed does not necessarily involve
the planters' interests and very
many of them sue opposed at heart
I to being made a catsp.iw in sup
pressing the struggle of their own
race to keep their feet.
1 He this all as it may, the strug
I gle is coming and though with the
j wliites decimated in number, and the
I native lied hand and foot by the Clii
' ne-.c and his vision and cniiipiehen
i sion already mercifully dimmed to
I the future that awaits him, the out
come of the htrugglc seems a fore
gone conclusion, yet it is uol in tbe
whites to give up ground once cov
ered without a stiuggle worthy of
the antecedents of their race.
Another position tho leaders of
I the pro-C.hineso party have taken
l which will expose them to the charge
' of disiiigenuousness ib their conten
tion that the refusal to admit moio
I Chinese under the Restriction Act
' coupled with the denial of return
passports to some of lliAn leaving
the kingdom will in time deplete
the country of these people and
thus in itself settle the whole ques
tion in other words, the continued
total exclusion of Cliincsc and the
refusal of return passports to a part
of them is the solution offered by
members of the pro-Chinese party.
Just how genuine this offer is will
be apparent when one considers that
the same men who make it, so far
from consenting when in the legis
latuie to a law which would secure
thi9 total exclusion they affect to
favor, they opposed even a Restric
tion Act intioduced by the Ministry
as too stringent, and cnine within an
ace of ousting them before assent
ing to the Reatiiction Act that was
finally passed. Furthermore pro
minent members of the same paity
have Mnee made efforts under this
Act to get the Ministry to let in
more Chinese at the very time that
their political associates were quiet
ing the country with the assurance
of a ciadual diminution of Chinese
which they know can only be brought
about by shutting the door for good
against them. The truth is those
depending on cheap labor, in justice
to their own interests, can never
:iscnl to the permanent total exclu
sion of Chinese. The diplomatic
uncertainties connected with the
Japanese, the expense of other
forms of labor and the extreme ups
and downs of the sugar industry
make it unsafe to close the door for
good to the most reliable form of
labor they have. The fault one has
to find is that instead of coining out
like men and s-iying so, the public
is treated to diaingeiiuoiis and mis
leading promises of relief never in
tended to be fulfilled even by this
party of high moral purposes and
wlfich will conveniently be forgotten
when a Hagging 01 diverted public
sentiment and a servile Ministry
present an oppoi Utility to slip in a
few fresh cargoes of the "old relia
ble" and thus by a single act elim
inate whatever relief might have
come from mouths ( r even years of
exclusion. liven if Chinese were
shut out in good faith for a number
of years and return passports re
fused to those leaving, there would
be but slight relief at the point
wheie the shoe really pinches, for
the Chinese will naturally leave the
better paid occupations which arc the
bone of contention Inst. The occa
sional vacancy occurring there will
naturally be tilled by some other
Chinaman who now in the lower
rank's of common labor is simply
waiting like everybody else to better
his condition. There are s.iy from
2000 to -1000 places now filled by
sjusr
Westerrnayer's Celebrated Uprights
MAD10 BXIMIKSSLY
j.
&, C.
RUUDOIR UPRIGHTS
.Other PIANOS of Well-known
FOR SALK AT M ANUFAUTURKR'S PRICKS HY
Ed. HOFFSCi
Mb lm
SO O.WTS-
-SSa
BLAOK
50 CENTS-
-a:SBaHTs-
AT
LEADED
COItXKR FORT
Chinese which are or could be made
remunerative enough to support that
number of white and native families,
and there are say 20,000 Chinese in
the country. To attempt to wait
until enough of them have gone so
that vacancies will commence to
occur in the better paid occupations
will result only in a tapid depletion
of the Chinese labor market to the
benefit of no one, and with but a
slight diminution in tho ranks of
those coolies who are really doing
the mischief, and long before ever
their numbers commenced to be
depleted so as to give any practical
relief there would be a stringency
in the labor maiket that would sim
ply force the doors open to the Chi-
nese again whether or no. This
is already being illustrated by
two years' trial of such a policy by
the picsent Ministry. The planters,
notwithstanding four shiploads of
Japanese and another expected, al
ready feel a slight stringency in the
Chinese labor market, yet as far as
the towns are concerned t liuiese in
appaiently increasing numbers are
not only holding all the ground once
covered by them but are still quietly
pursuing the process of rooting out
still more of the whites and nalivis.
The whole idea of looking to the
gradu.il depletion of the Chinese for
telief is a delusion and a snare. The
foreigners now stand on the eve of
an important election, divided
against themselves but all conscious
of the necessity of united action.
One wing has just come out of an
unprecedented year of prosperity,
the other whilesuffering no actual
hardships has had to deplete its own
ranks to make the work go round
and comes out of the past two years
with very little accumulated, and a
diminishing confidence in what the
future has in store for them. One
.side has in the day of it prosperity
seen fit to set Us face against any
concession or compromise whatso
ever. The other while demanding
self-protection has recognized ami
conceded the industrial necessities
of its opponents. Under such cir
cumstances it seems surprising and
yet perh.ips not so that the pro-Chi-'nese
party should now ask their fel
low whites to drop the Chinese ques
tion this election and thai many of
them should apparently have taken
offense because their proposition
does not seem to meet with much
enthusiasm.
The idea of now calling the legis
lature together nnd submitting a
Chinese constitutional amendment
to the people, thus bringing the for
eigners together this election, is evi
dently a concession they still frown
lipoil. V. A. IvlNNKY.
n. 7r-HwiMu;
arrived - s
FOR THIS t'LIMATK.
F8SGHER PIANOS !
.(. (HHINIOT Ul'lUGIITS.
American Factories on the Way,
LAECER & Co.,
King and iicthel Streets.
SsSr3--
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.n a W M XrJ?IU
"O"
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F I S II E?L ' S
MILLINERY HOUSE
.t HOTF.h ST HURTS.
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